Apollo Landing Sites Photographed

July
17, 2009: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or
LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing
sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module
descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows
from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.

The
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to
image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo
12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.

Above:
An LROC photo of the Apollo 14 landing site.

"The
LROC team anxiously awaited each image," said LROC principal
investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. "We
were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar
module descent stages just for the thrill -- and to see how
well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are
fantastic."

The
satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo
sites between July 11 and 15. Though it had been expected
that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo
mission, these first images came even before the spacecraft
reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these
sites will have two to three times greater resolution.

Although
these pictures provide a reminder of past NASA exploration,
LRO's primary focus is on paving the way for the future. By
returning detailed lunar data, the mission will help NASA
identify safe landing sites for future explorers, locate potential
resources, describe the moon's radiation environment and demonstrate
new technologies.

"Not
only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo,
they also show us that lunar exploration continues,"
said LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "They demonstrate
how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for
the next journeys to the moon."

The
spacecraft's current elliptical orbit resulted in image resolutions
that were slightly different for each site but were all around
four feet per pixel. Because the deck of the descent stage
is about 12 feet in diameter, the Apollo relics themselves
fill an area of about nine pixels. However, because the sun
was low to the horizon when the images were made, even subtle
variations in topography create long shadows. Standing slightly
more than ten feet above the surface, each Apollo descent
stage creates a distinct shadow that fills roughly 20 pixels.

The
image
of the Apollo 14 landing site had a particularly desirable
lighting condition that allowed visibility of additional details.
The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a set of scientific
instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site,
is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module
and instrument package left by the astronauts' footprints.

Launched
on June 18, LRO carries seven scientific instruments, all
of which are currently undergoing calibration and testing
prior to the spacecraft reaching its primary mission orbit.
The LROC instrument is made up of three cameras -- two high-resolution
Narrow Angle Cameras and one lower resolution Wide Angle Camera.
LRO will be directed into its primary mission orbit in August,
a nearly-circular orbit about 31 miles above the lunar surface.